CHARLESTON, W.Va.  The family of the late Robert C. Byrd blasted the GOP nominee for his U.S. Senate seat Sunday after he used an image from Byrd's memorial service in a TV ad attacking the Democratic nominee.

The ad by Republican John Raese's campaign seeks to link President Barack Obama to Gov. Joe Manchin by displaying an image of the two Democrats at the state Capitol ceremony marking Byrd's June 28 death.

Raese and Manchin are running in a special election for what remains of Byrd's term. Byrd was history's longest-serving member of Congress when he died at 92.

Raese's campaign manager, Jim Dornan, defended the use of the image.

"That's a stock photo. We had no idea it was from the memorial service," he said.

But Byrd's family called for the campaign to withdraw the ad.

"This is a tasteless and insensitive act by Mr. Raese," said a statement by the family of Byrd, who was also a Democrat. "His act is insulting to the memory of Robert Byrd and should have no place in a West Virginia political campaign."

No, it isn’t the pic. The pic is just a pic of the dem candidate sitting and laughing with Obama. You can’t tell where the pic was taken at all. The candidate had to tell the Byrd family about it because they didn’t even realize it was from the service.

Was Byrd’s KKK recruiting and the cross burnings and lynchings that were a result of his recruiting efforts insensitive? And how come we’ve never heard about whether he burned any crosses or lynched any blacks as a Klansman?

If I was the Republican candidate for West Virginia, I would not use the picture of anything Senator Byrd. Didn’t this guy get elected and reelected numerous times? Why remind voters of a candidate that they love? I would rather not have a candidate that the voter’s voted for. I am sure there are other ways to run commercials. Doesn’t this help the Democrat????

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